1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to terminal devices. In particular, the invention relates to a novel and improved method, device and computer program product for activating the right of use of at least one secured content item stored in a memory of the device or a removable memory connectable to the device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since the introduction of digital storage technologies more effective copyright enforcement has become an issue. Especially, the emergence of the Internet as an illicit distribution channel for copyright protected content has created a strong demand for new technologies in copyright protection. One such technology is the Digital Rights Management (DRM). The DRM is a common term for standards and proprietary systems where a given content item is augmented with information that specifies the user rights associated with it. The content item may, for example, be an audio recording, video, picture, computer program or simply a document. The user rights may comprise various rules pertaining to the use of the content item. For example, a user may be given a time limit during which the content item can be presented, in other words, rendered to the user. The allowed number of listening times, allowed device identities and partial viewing rights are other examples of rules pertaining to the use of a content item. The DRM requires that the presentation device and the presentation software in it are not hostile, that is, they participate in the enforcement of digital rights. In the presentation device there is usually a DRM agent, or in other words, a DRM engine, which enforces the DRM rights and protects the content items from illicit copying. In order to avoid making a DRM protected content item available for copying, the content item may be encrypted while it is in transit from the network to the presentation device and while it is stored in the presentation device outside the DRM engine, for example, on a hard disk.
One standard for the DRM is the one based on the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) DRM specification. The aim of the OMA DRM is to enable controlled consumption of digital media objects by allowing content providers to express content rights. The media objects are content items such as audio clips, video clips, pictures, Java applications and documents.
If a manufacturer, licensee or operator wants to differentiate their phones, it is hard to do it in open terminals, e.g. in Symbian operating system terminals. Symbian is a software licensing company that develops and supplies an advanced, open, standard operating system for data-enabled mobile phones. For example, if some mobile phone manufacturer wants to make a premium phone including a video editor and a lower-cost mobile phone not including the video editor, there is no means to stop copying the video editor application from the premium mobile phone into the lower-cost mobile phone. The mobile phone manufacturer or an operator may also want to offer applications having restrictions in their usage (e.g. 10 times to use, application valid for 1 month etc.), and after the rights have been consumed, the terminal owner can gain more rights to the application.
The OMA DRM offers restrictions to the use of applications but currently there is no means to offer OMA DRM content that is ready when purchasing the phone. A typical solution at the moment is to purchase and activate content over the air interface.